India joins US to again call for free, open Indo-Pacific amid China's aggression across Taiwan Strait

India and the United States on Thursday once again called for “a free, open, secure, and prosperous Indo-Pacific” even as China stepped up its military aggression across the Taiwan Strait in response to the recent visit of the Speaker of American House, Nancy Pelosi, to Taipei.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had a bilateral meeting with the US Secretary of State, Antony J Blinken, on the sideline of the ASEAN Regional Forum in Phnom Penh in Cambodia.

“We have a shared vision together for a free and open Indo-Pacific that we work on in so many different ways every single day,” Blinken told Jaishankar during the meeting. “We’re both strong proponents of ASEAN centrality (in the Indo-Pacific region).”

India, Japan, Australia and the US revived the Quad in 2017 and elevated the four-nation coalition to the level of the leaders to build a bulwark of democratic nations to counter the hegemonic aspirations of China in the Indo-Pacific region.

“Discussed the ever strengthening India-US relationship and the global situation with US Secretary of State @SecBlinken,” tweeted Jaishankar.

“We have some immediate challenges that we’re both concerned with, to include the situation in Sri Lanka, Burma, and a number of other – number of other hot spots,” Blinken said at the beginning of his meeting with Jaishankar.

They exchanged views on global and regional issues, including Russia’s “brutal aggression” against Ukraine and the implications it has had on food insecurity around the world, Ned Price, the spokesperson of the US State Department, said. “They discussed Sri Lanka’s economic crisis and emphasized that both nations stand with the people of Sri Lanka and support their aspirations for a return to economic and political stability through democratic and constitutional processes.”

The US Secretary of State also condemned Myanmar’s military regime’s execution of democracy activists. He and the External Affairs Minister discussed promoting accountability for the regime’s atrocities as well as collective efforts to put Myanmar back on the path to democracy, according to the spokesperson of the US State Department.